Ancient sea salamanders from Australia rediscovered in museum collection

Ancient sea salamanders from Australia rediscovered in museum collection

A new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes the rediscovery of an ancient sea salamander, Erythrobatrachus, from an existing museum collection.Reconstruction of Erythrobatrachus (foreground) and Aphaneramma (background). Credit: Pollyanna von Knorring (Swedish Museum of Natural History). A new study of 250-million-year-old fossil remains from the Kimberly region in far northern Western Australia has revealed a diver…

Lost fossils reveal sea monsters that took over after Earth’s greatest extinction

The ancient marine amphibians Erythrobatrachus (foreground) and Aphaneramma (background) swimming along the coast of what is now far norther Western Australia 250 million years ago. Credit: Pollyanna von Knorring (Swedish Museum of Natural History), edited About 250 million years ago, a region that is now a harsh desert in remote northwestern Australia lay along the edge of a shallow bay connected to a vast prehistoric ocean. Fossils collected t…